CRP Mission 1

 So a quick AAR of how the first CRP game went.

A and B are the positions where the two CFVs deployed, guessing (quite correctly) where the primary routes of attack would be (the thin red arrows).

The M3 at position A, looking down the road.

The M3 at position B, watching the river crossing.

The CRP come onto the board with Platoon order, move and disembark.  The M3 looking down the road on Ambush Fire opens fire with its autocannon on the troops on the road, killing 4 of them. 

The final BMP-2 moves to the left of the bridge and it's infantry dismount.  The SA-7 man is put on Ambush Fire, just in case.

In the first NATO turn they begin by attempting to drop some mortar rounds on the BMPs near the bridge, but the aiming point scatters off into the river.  The BMP-2 on the bridge is hit but the round fails to penetrate.  

The ensuing morale test is passed on a "6" which leads to a Beyond the Call of Duty test, which is passed.  The BMP-2 drives furiously up the road towards the Bradley.

The BMP-2 fires on the M3 with its 30mm cannon and pins it.  Things are not looking good for that Bradley.

Desperate to assist the M3 on the other flank fires a TOW at the BMP, but misses.

Back to the Soviets.  The T-72B1 and the MTU-55 arrive and both head towards the river.  The engineers in their BTR-80 head towards the bridge.

The BMP-2 on the road moves right up to the M3 it pinned last turn and fires again.

It misses completely.  I can only imagine the CFV crew were firing off every smoke grenade they had at this point.

The other 2 BMP-2s  on either side of the road moved up to also take a shot at the pinned M3.

Of course they either fail to see the M3 completely or miss again!  A charmed life after all!

The NATO turn is very brief.  One M3 is pinned, waiting until the end of the turn to un-pin, while the other M3 decides to move back behind cover, to swing around and move closer to the MSR.  The M3 is unpinned.

Its also a short WARPAC turn.  The AVLB motors up to the river, ready to deploy the bridge next turn.  The BMP-2 beside the M3 attempts to kill it again, but fails again and drives off the NATO table edge in disgust.

The remaining BMP-2s re-embark their dismounts and head to the bridge.  The troops who just watched their BMP drive off into the distance, after throwing their hands in the air with a "What the...." decide it time to get into the house in front of them.  The T-72B1 goes on Ambush Fire just in case.  The engineers have dismounted and spend the turn checking out the bridge for any hidden demolitions.  The NBC BRDM-2 also turns up so my whole force is on the table.

Turn 3 for NATO sees all their reinforcements arrive.  The Platoon Commander heads for area B to take over there.

While the other new Bradley stays near the table corner, nearest to the road, so it can look down the road.  The originally pinned M3 goes on Ambush Fire while the final CFV heads down the table towards the house the Soviet infantry just went into.  The Stinger team deploys and spends the rest of the game wondering what the hell they got themselves into!

Next turn sees the MTU-55 deploy it's bridge

and the T-72B1 drive up onto it.

The 3 Motor Rifle troops hiding in the house decide to use their RPG against the M3 that has strayed rather close...

...and are more then pleased with the result!  This pleasure is short-lived however as the M3 on Ambush Fire see the RPG firing and decides to hose down the building with its Bushmaster, leaving 3 dead Soviets and me needing to draw a chit.

Fortunately I drew "System Malfunction" and played it on the offending M3's fire control systems, which started to go into meltdown.

They now knew they could take just one more shot before the fire controls completely failed. (Photo is from a little later).

The last 2 BMP-2s advanced up to the bridge, while the engineers who have remounted their BTR motor across and try to hid behind the building!

NATO now attempts to sling an Ambush Fire TOW missile down the road into the front BMP-2.  Its a hit and as I start writing letters home to distraught parents I let the NATO player know he needs 3 or above on 2D6 to kill the BMP-2.  So course he rolls a "3" and so only manages to pin the BMP-2 which also passes its morale check.  Unbelievable!

I'm not sure if this is possible or at the very least advisable in real life, but my T-72B1 now took a couple of unsuccessful shots from the MTU bridge - really just to annoy the engineers rather than any likely chance of hitting!

The NBC BRDM-2 is ready and waiting to cross the bridge once the T-72 decides to stop using it as a firing point.

The next NATO turn was very uneventful, largely due to a grand total of 2 orders.  The FASCAM barrage arrived, unfortunately for NATO in a spot which while annoying to me would have no great impact on the outcome of the game.  So apart from some shuffling about, not real damage occurred to the Soviets.

So in my final turn, I decided that RPGs seemed to be the one thing that could consistently kill M3s so I advanced my only active BMP-2 as far down the road as it could go and punched out the infantry.

Not quite point blank range but almost.

That's now 2 smoking M3s - both taken out by RPGs.  This pushed the NATO force over their BR limit and ended the game.  WARPAC win!

As I said I might re-jig the NATO force slightly and run this mission again, this time solo.  I did give the NATO player a chemical smoke barrage which I want to test, but the NATO player went for HE over smoke.  I'd also like to deploy the FASCAM barrage a little earlier - so see if it actually has an impact on a small table like this.

Anyway - I hope to have another go at this mission shortly.

Thanks for looking

Richard

 

The Soviet Combat Recon Patrol

 So over the next couple of weeks I've decided to play a bunch of small games to test out a few rules and concepts.  These will all involve various NATO reconnaissance units being used as a screen or covering force, well in advance of the main NATO line.  Here's an example of a US Recce Screen. 

In this case it consists of 4 Bradly CFVs, each with two dismounts.  There is a Stinger Team mounted in a HMMWV and off-table support from a M106. 

The mission of the NATO force will be to engage a Soviet Combat Reconnaissance Patrol - or CRP as I'll now refer to it.  My first assumption for the mission is that the CRP has come from a Soviet Motor Rifle Division/Regiment.  

So as I understand it, a Soviet Division has a Recon Battalion – which has a HQ and Support Company, a Light Recon Company, 2 Heavy Recon Companies and a Radio/Radar Recon Company.  I believe it is that their role is to recon well in advance of the division.  For the purposes of what I'm doing, they are well past my tabletop - either wandering about in NATO rear areas, or being beaten up close to the actual Forward Line of NATO troops.

At the Regimental level there is a Recon Company which has an HQ, BRDM Platoon, Motorcycle section and a BMP-2 platoon.  My understanding is that their role is to recon well in advance of the regiment up to 5-20km ahead of them.

As the regiment advances towards contact, lets say they try and run down two parallel routes with a Motor Rifle battalion advancing down each route and the third MR battalion and tank battalion behind ready to follow the MR battalion that is having the most success.

Each advancing battalion splits into at least 3 components.  Furthest back would be main body of the battalion.  From the main body they would split off a company plus other battalion/regimental assets (including a 4 vehicle tank platoon some arty support like a section of 3 2S1 or 120mm mortars, air defence like a ZSU-23-4 and a SA-9) to form the Forward Security Element (FSE) or in British Army terminology, the Advanced Guard.  

From the FSE they would split off the Combat Recon Patrol (CRP).  This would primarily be a platoon of MR Infantry in BMPs or BTRs and a tank from the platoon attached to the FSE, plus other assets as determined by the mission and what the commander agrees to release – examples include some kind of recon engineer support to check bridges, culverts etc,  perhaps some chemical recon like a NBC BRDM, artillery FO team etc.  The CRP can be up to 10km ahead of the FSE which is 3-5km ahead of the main body.  Other CRPs can be split from the main body to provide flank security as required.  This is my core CRP:

To that I've decided to add some engineers in a BTR-80, an NBC BRDM-2 RKhB and a MTU-55 Bridgelayer.

So the CRP has one platoon of motor rifle infantry from say Company A and the FSE has the other two MR platoons that make up Company A plus the Company HQ.  The Main body has MR Company B and MR Company C.

Different documents I've looked at describe the CRP differently – I assume because apart from the core MR infantry platoon everything else is adjustable according to what the Battalion Commander thinks is required, based on whatever intel he’s received from his Regiment’s Recon Company and whatever the division has willing to pass onto him from their recce!

So that's a brief simplistic (best I could do) explanation of the CRP.  For the purposes of the exercise I'll now show you the table.  Firstly from the CRP table edge:

For the purposes of the game the pontoon bridge is not there.  It is however a previously reconnoitred spot that the commander has designated for the MTU-55 to lay the bridge.  The river is considered deep and the banks to steep for vehicles in the water to climb.  The Soviet aim is to exit the opposite table edge.  They start the game with just the MR Platoon on the table the rest are available from the start of turn 2.  The Soviets have just D3+1 orders per turn for this size game.

Here's a beauty shot of the river and bridges:

Remembering the pontoon bridge is a figment of your imagination!

Here's the end that NATO has to defend:

They will start the game with 2 Bradleys anywhere on the table from the river to the NATO table edge.  They are in contact with the off-table mortar from the first turn and will generally start the game on the Ambush Fire order.  The rest of their force is available as reinforcements the turn after the shooting starts on a D6 roll.

I didn't use any objectives for this game, but may change that in the future.

Next post - the first attempt at the game.

Thanks

Richard

 

M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle Platoon

 After completing the M1 Platoon, the next logical step was to complete an M2 Platoon.  A bit of armoured infantry can never go astray and in 1/72 I can use these vehicles as either M2 BFVs or M3 Cavalry Fighting Vehicles - so two platoon options for the price of 4 models - not bad.

Like the M1's I've owned these vehicles for quite some time and only just now felt confident enough to stow and paint them.  Pretty sure this lot includes 2 Dragon diecasts, 1 Trumpeter kit and 1 Revell kit.  I have a feeling the Trumpeter kit is the only one you can show with the commanders hatch open.  Could be wrong...

So here the platoon as a whole:

Now broken two to two sections.  The Platoon Commander's element:

And now the Platoon Sergeant's element:

And now some individual vehicle shots:

So that's this lot of M2's done.  Like the M1's there's plenty more left to do, but I think I'll be moving onto to more infantry of a new platoon of M113's in MERDC next.

Thanks for looking.

Richard

M1 Tank Platoon

 OK - so in the end I haven't made any changes to these models.  I decided that I wouldn't weather them for now as I don't have the right decals and getting them seems more expensive than it's worth, as once I put them on, they'll get covered by mud & dirt etc anyway.  So I don't really know what to do there.

Regarding turret markings, after asking the question on a few different facebook groups, the markings I really like seem to have been exercise or road-march only.  They were to be whipped off the moment hostilities started.  I still like them, so one day I might add them anyway.  Not for now though...

So here's the finished platoon:

Now the Platoon Commander's Section:

Now the Platoon Sergeant's Section:

And some shots of individual tanks:

Guess which one I stuffed up!

Anyway - that's enough for now.  M2 Bradley's up next.

Thanks

Richard

M1 Tank Platoon W-I-P

 Hi All

This is just a quick post of a not quite finished M1 Tank Platoon.  It's taken me a while to get to this point, so rather than just wait until it's 100% finished (whatever that is) I took a quick snap of them today to share.

I'm pretty chuffed with how these have turned out so far.  I just have to weather them and add a Unit/Tank ID board to the rear of the turret - then they are done done!

I did make a spectacular mistake in the making of one of the M1's that's so bad I can't hide it, so when I take the proper photos, one M1 will be very carefully placed to save my embarrassment!

Moving onto some Bradley's next...  The year of Americans continues...

Richard

 

Some GREAT News!

 Hi All

You may have already seen this but just in case Plastic Soldier Company have recently made an announcement regarding their future plans for Battlegroup.  You can find it here:

PSC Announcement

The paragraph that may be of most interest to readers of this blog is as follows:

As we progress further we have releases planned in consistently over the next few years. We have very definite plans in regards titles for Battlegroup, but also expansion with two new rules systems within the Battlegroup family. One will be looking at the Cold War again, this time matching up the Cold War to the original Battlegroup level of play. So as Battlegroup Commander will mirror NorthAG and its play level, so a new title will do the same for Cold War and the original level of game that Battlegroup aims for… its time the 15mm/20mm Cold War gamers to also get some love! We have other titles pencilled in to expand NorthAG too so all our existing fans will be getting new content regardless of the system you play.

 I'm very excited about this!  Sounds like exactly what I've always hoped for and more in terms of using the Battlegroup core system to play out Cold War games.

Can't wait to see what happens next!

Richard

US 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) Battlegroup

So today's the first time a new Army List has been added to my "Totally Unofficial" Battlegroup Cold War variant of PSC's Battlegroup since about 2018.  I've been thinking about this list for years - as a devotee of the original Twilight:2000 RPG certain vehicles just had to be added to any fictional Third World War setting to make it just that much more fun and interesting.... but only if you want to!

I've strived to make this 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) (9ID(M)) list as real as it could be - whilst also making it as unreal as you the player might want it to be.  While we know the US Army was not enamoured with the whole FAV concept and got rid of them fairly quickly - there was a period of time when the FAV was a much loved 9ID(M) asset.  Just imagine have 87 of them roaming madly through the battlespace!

The HMMWV Ground Launched Hellfire-Light was tested under full exercise conditions and performed well - striking tank sized targets almost 8km away.  But it never saw service.

9ID(M) never actually got one of it's most vital weapons platforms - the Assault Gun System.  Instead for a while it used the M901 ITV as a surrogate system, then replaced them with M996 HMMWV's with the TOW II ATGM.  Imagine if circumstances were different, the Cold War wasn't drawing to a close. Congress loosened the purse strings and some of the more unconventional thinkers in the US Army had been able to push through some of these ideas.

You can use this Army List to create a realistic 9ID(M) Battlegroup reflecting actual equipment usage from about 1983 to 1989 or so.  Or you can use the List to create the 9ID(M) of your imagination - still sort of tethered to reality.  Apart from one HMMWV variant in the list, all of the rest of the speculative equipment was actually produced - some even saw service eventually in the US Army.  One of the Light Tanks saw service in the Thai Army!  Some like the XM8 Buford pictured above, won their specification contests, were approved for production, but never quite got there.  What if they had?

The good news is none of the vehicles or units in this List are Uber-Tanks.  Potentially you'll have a lot of Glass Cannons on your tabletop.  Bare in mind that 9ID(M) actually did very well on exercise, even under the testing constraints of the NTC.

So this really is the ultimate "What If" List.  I hope you enjoy it as a fair amount of effort and research has gone into it - although it has not yet been tested in any way.  As always I'm really keen for any feedback - negative or positive - but anything constructive will be welcome.

Here is the list:

9th Infantry Division (Motorized) Battlegroup

It can also be found under the NATO Army Lists Tab above.

Data Cards for all the vehicles in the List will be posted next.

Thanks

Richard